How Do You Know You’re Leading a C-Suite with a Real First Team Mindset?

Last week, I was writing about the struggles many CEOs face in transforming the mindset of their C-Suite members regarding who their first team should be: their department and line operations, or your executive team. 

I emphasized why some top leaders might struggle to embrace the idea that the C-Suite is now their primary team, and what CEOs can do to nurture a first team mentality.

Today, I’d like to cover how you, the CEO, can recognize whether you’re leading a real first team and what else you can do to unleash the potential of your executive team to drive successful company transformation. 

Here are eight indicators that you can use to assess whether the members of your executive team have embraced the first team mentality or not yet.

1. They don’t dread your executive meetings. In C-Suites made up of people with a my team mentality, each executive team meeting can feel like a struggle. Executives with a my team mindset prepare for C-Suite meetings as if for a battle. They are cautious, suspicious, hypervigilant, and ready to fight for resources and their turf at the slightest whiff of tension. If your C-Suite execs come to your executive meetings as if they were ready to step into the boxing ring, you may not have a fully-fledged first team mentality yet.
2. They are genuinely curious about the perspectives of their colleagues. Mature C-Suite execs understand that they can only see a piece of the puzzle, but that they serve the whole enterprise. That’s why they feature genuine curiosity about their colleagues’ opinions and perspectives. They ask insightful questions and they are eager to learn from each other.
3. They make their relationship with their C-Suite colleagues a priority. This can show up as responding to each other’s messages first, talking together, spending extra time together in a social context, and – mainly – by having each other’s backs.
4. They are able to listen without interruptions (or starting to scroll on their mobile phone after a few seconds). Yes, some meetings are long. Yes, some topics are awfully boring. Yes, some colleagues love to hear themselves speaking. All this is a reason to give the CEO and your colleagues feedback that could lead to improved meeting facilitation and better behavior, not a reason to disconnect. Members of a first team are able to self-regulate, focus on the matters at hand, and leverage the time spent together to grow together.
5. They carry deep expertise lightly. C-Suite executives with a first team mindset know they have deep functional expertise, but they are also able to recognize that they don’t own the answers to all the questions the organization is facing. Their expertise is a contribution to the greater good rather than a show of personal skills or a source of personal power.
6. They negotiate with the greater good of the company in mind. No turf wars, no incomprehension, no drama. Just solid business cases showing why resources should be allocated a certain way to reach positive results together. Ego is left at the door during such negotiations. Resource allocation becomes an exercise in optimization rather than conflict and trade-offs become expressions of strategy rather than political compromise.
7. They collaborate and co-create holistic solutions effectively. Before bringing an issue to the CEO or the entire C-Suite, individual team members sit together mapping opportunities and co-creating potential solutions for the challenges at hand.
8. They train successors who also think cross-enterprise and are ready to collaborate with other departments. Mature C-Suite executives behave like humble custodians of resources rather than the owners of specific domains. They also think about the message their behavior is sending to their departments and they build a legacy by nurturing successors who are also able to feature a cross-organizational mindset.

WHAT ELSE CAN YOU, THE CEO, DO TO SCULPT A FIRST TEAM MINDSET?

The most important thing for any CEO, new and experienced alike, is to accept that having an executive team with a first team mindset is fundamental for future success.

The challenges organizations face today are complex and cross-organizational in nature – from AI adoption to external market challenges such as geopolitics, tariffs, supply chain disruptions, new governance needs, and consumer behavior shifts.

In order to build a solid cross-organizational mindset, you may want to also encourage your C-Suite executives to develop cross-functional teams that address the company’s challenges together.

One of the best examples in this regard is AI adoption – without a cross-functional approach, there is no way a company can design a strategy that can elevate both people and results.

To fully benefit from a solid first team, it’s not enough to feature the right mindset individually. C-Suite executives also need to cascade this attitude to the people in their departments.

Organizational silos are not dissolved by one person or one team. However, when the first team is real and solid, its attitude and behavior can set the right tone for the whole organization, guaranteeing that the company has a fighting chance at mastering transformation and the tremendous challenges that keep pouring over us and our economy.

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